Before diving in, it’s important to remember that every case of aphantasia is subjective and those experiences are not black and white, nor easily described in umbrella terms.
I have to do my best to try, in order to relay information, but nothing is meant to discredit or offend anyone on the basis of abilities and disabilities.
Like I’ve previously mentioned, many aphants think that having aphantasia is a curse.
While I also often feel like that’s true, I think it’s important to contemplate all the effects of having a condition where you can’t visualize.
Aphantasia is sort of linked to memory. Aphants can’t use the tactic of picturing words or images they may need later on, like during a test or cooking.
But on the other hand, disturbing images of traumatic memories aren’t quite as bothersome or invasive because they can’t be recreated in the mind of an aphant.
Aphants also often can’t use the “mental mapping” tactic, so it’s more likely for them to misplace objects, even if they had just put them somewhere.
This could also mean that aphants rely on technology more often, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
These people could be the ones to further develop all sorts of navigation systems, as well as help boost those markets’ revenue.
Some aphants are less emotional overall, because their mind can’t visually attach images to emotions.
For example, aphants can’t often daydream of their lover or visually play through a fight.
This makes aphants more logical, using left side of their brain more and thinking with all the things that they factually know.
Finally, guided meditations, visualizations and hypnosis often don’t work on aphants.
They have to focus so much extra on the task of picturing what the audio describes that they miss parts of the story in the process.
This can lead to frustration and everything opposite of what these relaxation techniques are supposed to do.
All of these struggles and more are heavily problematic for aphants, that people without aphantasia probably don’t often even think about.
Perhaps the more these types of every day problems for aphants are talked about, the faster a societal shift could make the world an easier place for aphants to be a part of.